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How much can you actually 'protect' your characters?
9 years ago
So the other day, a friend of mine over on deviantART came to tell me that this younger artist was ripping off my art.
Looking through her gallery, a LOT of things were copied off from me. Her icon is exactly the same as mine, and her two dragon characters are basically recolored Astrids.
I sort of wanted to leave her be at first, but everyone was insisting that I note her and ask her to change her characters a bit. This was--two days ago I think? And I'm still waiting on a response.
This whole thing has me thinking--is hunting out "art thefts" really...worth it?
Let me rephrase that.
Copycats.
Art thefts are people who straight up steal, trace or edit your work and claim it as theirs, and some people even go as far as to profit off of it. THIS is not okay.
But some kid on the internet is inspired by your art and makes characters and other things that are completely copied off of yours. Is this really....bad?
In some cases, I suppose I could see why. The internet is treated like a competition to have the most views, the most likes, the most followers, etc. Having other people copy what's an original idea of yours can hinder that. And above all, at times it can feel downright degrading.
But on the other hand, is there REALLY a point in stopping this? This even happens to major companies who hold COPYRIGHT on their work. There are hundreds of Disney knock-offs, bootlegs, and the like that are sad attempts at being the original but regardless, they are created anyway. Although a lot of these knock-offs get sued, that doesn't stop them from coming back.
And with fan-made OC's and online characters that younger people make, they aren't necessarily profiting off of them (well--most of the time). It's really easy to spot knock-offs of characters from other people, especially when that artist is growing in popularity and appeals to a certain fandom/age group. And there are LOADS of small children on dA--as little as 10 years old--that simply don't know any better. So my question is--is it really worth stressing over?
Well in conclusion, if it wasn't obvious by the start of this journal...I feel really bad about noting that younger artist. I really didn't want to, but my friends wanted me to "stand up for myself" and not let her step all over me like that. But is it really 'stepping all over me'? No, it's not. She's inspired by my work and I should have been more sympathetic of that. I have characters that are clearly based off of some that belong to my idols, and although they're not blatant rip-offs, you can't expect a 12 year old to know that.
I don't know....I am still waiting for her to reply (which has been eating away at my nerves like crazy), but if she refuses to change her characters, or simply doesn't reply at all, I am not going to make her. And if this happens again, I won't step in. It's the internet and some things are simply out of my control. If anything, I am very happy that I've influenced younger artists. It IS a bit annoying to see your stuff being copied like that, but there is absolutely NO ill-intent behind it.
What do you think of this? I could be completely wrong; I want to hear your opinions.
Looking through her gallery, a LOT of things were copied off from me. Her icon is exactly the same as mine, and her two dragon characters are basically recolored Astrids.
I sort of wanted to leave her be at first, but everyone was insisting that I note her and ask her to change her characters a bit. This was--two days ago I think? And I'm still waiting on a response.
This whole thing has me thinking--is hunting out "art thefts" really...worth it?
Let me rephrase that.
Copycats.
Art thefts are people who straight up steal, trace or edit your work and claim it as theirs, and some people even go as far as to profit off of it. THIS is not okay.
But some kid on the internet is inspired by your art and makes characters and other things that are completely copied off of yours. Is this really....bad?
In some cases, I suppose I could see why. The internet is treated like a competition to have the most views, the most likes, the most followers, etc. Having other people copy what's an original idea of yours can hinder that. And above all, at times it can feel downright degrading.
But on the other hand, is there REALLY a point in stopping this? This even happens to major companies who hold COPYRIGHT on their work. There are hundreds of Disney knock-offs, bootlegs, and the like that are sad attempts at being the original but regardless, they are created anyway. Although a lot of these knock-offs get sued, that doesn't stop them from coming back.
And with fan-made OC's and online characters that younger people make, they aren't necessarily profiting off of them (well--most of the time). It's really easy to spot knock-offs of characters from other people, especially when that artist is growing in popularity and appeals to a certain fandom/age group. And there are LOADS of small children on dA--as little as 10 years old--that simply don't know any better. So my question is--is it really worth stressing over?
Well in conclusion, if it wasn't obvious by the start of this journal...I feel really bad about noting that younger artist. I really didn't want to, but my friends wanted me to "stand up for myself" and not let her step all over me like that. But is it really 'stepping all over me'? No, it's not. She's inspired by my work and I should have been more sympathetic of that. I have characters that are clearly based off of some that belong to my idols, and although they're not blatant rip-offs, you can't expect a 12 year old to know that.
I don't know....I am still waiting for her to reply (which has been eating away at my nerves like crazy), but if she refuses to change her characters, or simply doesn't reply at all, I am not going to make her. And if this happens again, I won't step in. It's the internet and some things are simply out of my control. If anything, I am very happy that I've influenced younger artists. It IS a bit annoying to see your stuff being copied like that, but there is absolutely NO ill-intent behind it.
What do you think of this? I could be completely wrong; I want to hear your opinions.
Yes, you said exactly what was on my mind xD when I noted her I was very gentle with my approach and tried to be extremely encouraging (her art is pretty decent, so I wanted to make sure I let her know that.) However, I did tell her exactly what bothered me about her characters and I'm hoping she cooperates.
YEAH, some people blow it up into this huge thing. I try to be very flexible; even if people repost my art to other sites, so long as they leave my signature on it I'm pretty much fine with it. It's the internet and I'm all for exposure, but even I'm still figuring out what's right and wrong. And in cases like these, it's hard to tell. Some people take it way worse than others.
Yes, this type of thing has only happened once or twice in the past and both times ended horribly. The only other person who's ever ripped off Astrid was blaming mental illness on "not being able to change it" and then I got yelled at by her older sister who was telling me to knock off the bullshit because her little sister loves my work and it's okay if she's inspired by it, and that I hurt her feelings by telling her to change the character like I was nitpicking.
(I respect them both so I'm not saying their names)
I was veeeery gentle to the girl I sent the note to. I really like her art, and I even commented on some of her work trying to encourage her. She seemed pleasant enough when I talked to her in the past, but she's not much of a talker at all from what I see. I'm hoping this doesn't escalate.
YEAH really :\ Astrid's a personal character as well, I don't really consider her my sona anymore but she's on the same scale as Mike as far as the amount of work I've put into her xD
sorry if i was one of the ones that pushed you to send her a note..
But to sit and chase down people, spend hours in front of the computer just to search if someone copied you, it sounds energydraining as fudge. I found one guy couple of days ago by random as I looked at my fiancés profile. He had traced off a ref I bought from a friend, made minor changes and claimed as own work + he took comissions, sold traced artwork. It is solved now tho, he removed the pics and apolagized to my friend after I took contact about it.
Hm, reading the earlier comments you pretty much figured already what to do so and say to this person so heh ><
I hope you can solve it soon as possible and that he/she can cooperate with you!
I think you did a good thing, even if you don't care, they might be better off not half ripping other people's stuff. Some people can be very vicious if they think you are stealing their style/character/art. even if you kind of aren't??